


Out for a Spin

by Viridian5



Series: Pike and Benny Stash [3]
Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (movie)
Genre: Clubbing, M/M, Slice of Life, a night out
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2000-03-18
Updated: 2000-03-18
Packaged: 2017-10-02 07:29:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,484
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4022
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Viridian5/pseuds/Viridian5
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Pike wonders how he got here.  He's not even sure where "here" is.  Somehow it all just <i>happened</i>....</p><p>(A Pike & Benny joint.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Out for a Spin

**Author's Note:**

> Te wanted to know more about how Pike sees Benny....
> 
> Inspired by flipping through radio channels as I drove home one Saturday night. A combination of K-ROCK's Solid State, the Z-100 Saturday Night Dance Party, and WPLJ's 80s Saturday nights can do odd things to your brain. Further musical inspiration during the actual writing/typing provided by _The Saint_ soundtrack.
> 
> The choke collar is in homage to someone who knows who she is.

Pike had no idea how they'd gotten to a club. Hell, he had no idea how they'd gotten _in_ either. With the way they dressed, they looked completely disreputable, and if he looked as stoned as he felt....

As Benny pulled him through the writhing crowd, Pike tried to retrace his path here, recall the night's events. Work had thoroughly sucked. After hours of trying to find out what the hell was wrong with Mr. Farrand's Mercury Topaz on its third consecutive visit and failing, plus John being a total bastard all day, seeing his new friend Benny waiting at his door had been a big lift. "It's Saturday night, we're partying, and I brought the favors," Benny had said. Events went fuzzy not too long after that.

But it seemed to be a good fuzzy. Warm happiness flowed through his body like thick honey. He felt distant in a nice way, and his head seemed to be floating, only attached to his neck by a string. The feel of Benny's sweating hand wrapped around his thin wrist distracted him beyond words. People didn't touch him; he didn't let them. Touching led to badness. This seemed to be okay, though.

Flashing lights gave him a taste of what epilepsy might be like. Thick cigarette smoke made him want to make shadow puppets against it. He felt the music pounding through the air and floor caress his every nerve. //I am sooooo thrashed.//

"What're we doing here?" Pike yelled to Benny.

"We're here to dance!" Benny shouted back.

"What?"

"Dance. Sounds like 'dance'? We're in a dance club; that's what people do here."

"But why?"

"Is this going to be some kind of philosophy discussion? I wanna dance, that's why."

"I don't dance."

Benny took off his trench coat. "Everybody dances! You just move, and you're dancing. How easy is that?"

"I don't dance; I spazz. It's painful to watch. Me, spazzing all over the floor."

A sudden strobe light going off made Benny turning to face him and moving closer seem to have been fifteen isolated movements between blackouts. The white light seemed to flashbulb off Benny's pale skin.

Close as they now stood, Benny didn't have to yell so loudly to make Pike hear him. "I'm sure you do a nice spazz."

"Ben--"

"Aren't you hot in that? You look hot."

"Yeah, but--"

"Take it off. You'll feel better."

Pike's coat was part of his camouflage. He could hide in it, and it disguised his shape. "I don't--" But Ben already had it off him. Cooler, he did feel a little more grounded.

Benny wadded the two trench coats together and hid them in a corner, actually snarling when someone came near. The someone quickly backed off and walked away. Smart someone.

That was when Pike realized that the large, heavy chain Benny wore like a choker around his neck had a long chain piece that dangled in the back, tipped with a larger link. It wasn't a necklace; it was a dog's choke collar. How did you ask a guy you only knew three weeks why he was wearing a dog's choke collar? Aside from the first reason that leapt into Pike's mind and sent a jolt of... something through his body. He tried to stop his hand from reaching for the larger end link, because he knew he would yank it if he grabbed it. Even knowing what it would do.

Especially knowing what it would do?

Anyway, he fought the almost irresistible urge.

Benny pulled him out onto the floor and started to move. Pike didn't know if he'd call it dancing, but it pulled at his gaze anyway, especially as the trailing chain whipped in arcs. Benny demanded attention.

Ben was so completely unlike Pike that it amazed Pike that they had any basis for friendship at all. Pike usually hid, sticking with what he knew. He'd always been this small, brown, spindly guy, easily overlooked. With the way life tended to notice him, he'd decided long ago that he was better off overlooked. He made himself seem even smaller and tried not think that one day he'd compress in on himself until he ceased to exist anymore. But staying quiet and out of the way made the Dads and other bullies of the world less likely to see him.

Benny wasn't like him. Benny just didn't care what people thought of him, freeing him to behave however he wanted to. That often involved acting strange or goofy, but he seemed to enjoy himself. Pike wished he could be that brave even as he knew why he didn't dare.

It wasn't that simple, though. Part of Benny's bravery could come from the way people seemed to know at a glance that he had sharp and broken edges and decided not to mess with him very often. Even his goofiest sneer had an unhinged tinge, a slight air of possible violence, to it. Pike just looked silly when he tried to look dangerous, but Benny exuded danger effortlessly.

But part of Benny's don't-give-a-shit attitude seemed to be that he didn't understand what kind of impression he left on other people. He didn't _feel_ it. //Does all that make Ben a sociopath?// It had taken time for Pike to realize that, because Ben managed to be hyper-aware of _his_ thoughts and feelings, more than anyone he'd ever known. So few people had cared....

Pike still didn't know why Benny had noticed him. It shouldn't have happened. But it had, and he couldn't say that he felt sorry about it.

"Dance with me!" Benny said.

Pike's head spun so quickly that he felt himself move without even commanding his body to do it. Maybe it could pass for dancing, but it really involved Pike trying to stop his head and the music's pounding tidal pull from dragging him down to the floor.

The people moving so close to them and Ben's hand on his hip helped keep him upright. When had Benny's hand arrived there? Pike didn't know, but it helped him now, so he didn't mind so much. They pogoed together, with Benny's sweaty black hair flying.

"You make me wanna / You make me wanna / You make me wanna..." a woman's voice repeated over and over, never finishing her thought or desire. The drum replicated the sound of a dead cat being struck against a wall over and over again at great speed. Pike guessed. It wasn't like he'd ever done that so he'd know for sure.

Each movement made Pike dizzier, with the dizziness making each move more extreme and lurching, which made him dizzier, in a self-perpetuating cycle. Perpetual motion machine? He felt like he could go spinning off into space any moment. Maybe he would melt from the heat instead.

His head drooped back on his neck as his back bent a bit in that direction as well, giving him a good view of the killer robot-looking lights moving on the ceiling. They scared him a bit. He felt fingers at his lips and let his tongue flicker out to touch them. They jerked away, but before they left he got a taste of salt and beer.

Something flashed before Pike's eyes, and he realized that his head now nestled against damp, black cotton. A very solid body supported him under that cotton. //Spider, tell me a story. One with a happy ending....// But it couldn't be Spider. He'd never let Spider touch him, couldn't. Spider was past. One day Spider had waved and said goodbye but never come back.

"You okay?" Benny shouted.

Right, Benny. Benny was reassuringly solid too. And protective. That explained it. Here Pike was, making a spectacle of himself in a room full of strangers who could turn on him at any moment, but he felt okay. Not quite safe--he never felt safe--but protected. Benny would turn that danger onto anyone who threatened him.

Trust. He trusted Benny, and he didn't know when that had happened either. He didn't trust anyone.

"Pike!"

Oh. Ben had him propped against a wall and held him up with his own body. Pike felt crowded and panicked and protected and aroused and shit scared....

"My head's spinning, and I can't find my knees," Pike finally said.

"I'm sorry."

"Don't be. It's not your fault. I'm the one who lost them."

Benny led Pike to a small table and sat him down, taking a seat himself on the other side of it. Once the room began to spin a little slower, Pike cradled his head on his arms and just breathed, enjoying the cool Formica against the side of his face. A soft, fuzzy blanket of oblivion slowly drifted over him, muffling and finally overwhelming the confusion of stimuli he'd faced. He passed out into the shadowlands unafraid, knowing Benny would somehow get him home.

### End


End file.
